SACO, MAINE—CSP Mobile Productions
specializes in covering major league and
college sports throughout the United
States. We also provide on-location HDTV
production facilities for such clients as
broadcast and cable networks, corporate
communicators, pay-per-view producers,
and Internet content providers.

This fall, we’re planning to debut HD2,
our third new HD production vehicle in
two years. It’s a highly advanced 53-foot
expando truck that’s equipped with a full
complement of advanced gear. It’s wired for
seven eight-channel video servers, and has
an advanced HD production switcher, a digital
audio console, 28 frame syncs, and more.
It’s also wired for 16 cameras, each of which
will have a Canon HD lens on it.

We use Canon HD lenses exclusively,
primarily due to their reliability and also
Canon’s service. We’ve had very few problems
with Canon products, and on the
few occasions where we’ve had to contact
Canon—most of which were due to a
dropped lens or an element that had been
broken in use—their service has been
phenomenal. They always made sure the
issue was resolved immediately, which is
of the utmost importance in our business.

We purchased one Canon XJ100x9.3B,
two XJ86X13.5B, three XJ72x9.3B imagestabilized
long-zoom HD field lenses, one
Canon HJ14ex4.3B wide-angle portable
HD lens, and one KJ20x8.2B portable
HD lens for HD2. We also acquired two
KJ20x8.2B portable HD lenses that we’ll
be adding to our other two HD trucks.

At the NAB Show, we told Canon we
were also looking for less costly HD lenses
for a smaller project we were doing and
they showed us their new, cost-effective
KJ20x8.2B. To be honest, when Canon
told us the price, I didn’t think it could
possibly equal our other Canon portable
lenses. However, we were pleasantly surprised
when we started using it. We ran
the KJ20x8.2B right alongside with our
Canon HJ22ex7.8’s to see what our clients
thought, and they were also very happy
with the performance of the KJ20x8.2B,
its servo controls, and other features. The
zoom distance that it delivers for our particular
application—major league sports
with handheld cameras down on the
field—has worked out really well. While it’s
not an HJ-Series lens, most of our clientele
are pleased with its performance. The Canon
KJ20x8.2B lens will be a nice alternative
as an extra lens to go along with our
HJ22ex7.8’s on HD2. It’s a cost-effective
way to provide an extra handheld.
With the features that the KJ20x8.2B
has, I’m overwhelmed with what it can
do for the price.

We’re very particular about the production
equipment we order for our
HD mobile trucks—including HDTV
lenses—as our clients expect high-quality
productions from us. We just had all
of our lenses serviced during the past few
months (they’re about a year and a half old,
so they were due). Canon came right to our
site, went through all of the lenses, and did
all the servicing for us, so we didn’t have to
ship them. The level of service that Canon
provides is not found everywhere.

Len Chase is the president/co-owner of
CSP Mobile Productions. He may be contacted
atlen@cspmobile.com.